Running On Empty

Three weekends on the trot! Get in. 💪 This time, it was a return to Prudhoe Riverside, though it turned out the course had changed slightly. Instead of starting alongside The Spetchels , the course started about half a mile(?) upriver, just underneath the Bridge of Terror: Ovingham Bridge. The terror comes from driving through the stone pinch points at each end. It then looped back on itself just past the original start line —  seeing the elite runners pelt past me in the opposite direction at that point caught me somewhat off-guard — before heading off for a solitary lap around the Spetchells, but in the opposite direction to previously. That meant that steep downhill at the end of the loop became a steep uphill at its start instead. Mercifully, it's nowhere near as prolonged as the hills at Chopwell Wood. Or even at Morpeth, for that matter. On the whole, the course always was pretty flat and the extension of the riverside section has just made it even moreso. Which takes a...

So, back to Chopwell Wood as a parkrunner for the first time since my 25th parkrun . My time? 31:11. I'll come back to that later. Anyway, I feel like a lot has changed in the 2 and a bit(!) years since that first time — giving up running, turning 50, leaving my job, and probably more — but it's lovely to see that this parkrun venue and its volunteers haven't changed; they're both still delightful. While the Morpeth parkrun has more than doubled in size (60ish to 130ish runners) and lost some of its intimacy, this run at Chopwell Wood was still a pleasingly small affair, with just 45 runners. Maybe it's the hills putting people off, maybe it was the weather (raining for once), but the event remains just how I like it. 🥰 Weather was 11°C and light rain throughout. Felt cold, but I warmed up plenty. So, yeah, my third parkrun back and I was still clocking well over 30 minutes. And I was nearly 4 minutes slower than my previous best time here. But... at Morpet...

And 5 weeks later, i returned to parkrun, and to Morpeth at that. No runs in between; no training at all. But this time, I tried harder from the get-go. Result? 25 seconds faster. In all honesty, as happy as I am with having hauled my carcass back to a parkrun, I'm a bit disappointed with that time. Yes, I know I didn't exactly help myself by not running AT ALL in the last 5 weeks, but I genuinely thought that if I just set off a bit faster this time, I'd take a minute or two off my previous effort. Well... that reality check landed hard. 😳 On the upside, this time I had zero pain from the knees. 5 weeks ago, I was really feeling it in my left knee the day after the run and feeling the same disappointment that led to me stopping in the first place. This time, nothing. The biggest issue I had was that 3-weeks-and-counting chest cough meant I wheezed my way round the course. What else to say...? 🤔 Oh, the weather was perfect . 11°C and sunny, with bl...